saturday
There is an old song sung by Perry Como called “There’s No Place Like Home For The Holidays” and when your family has students away at college, that song comes to mind right about this time of year. Some students like my grand niece, Siara are away at college for the first time in their lives, in fact it is the first time in her life that Siara hasn’t lived at home with her parents. For those students, being far away from home is both fun and yet, very lonely…at least at first. Once they make friends, most students start to feel better, but there is still no place like home.
Siara came home for the Christmas break today, and her Facebook page sported comments like “Homehomehomehome!! (: It’s about time!” and “Forgot how pretty my house is during Christmas!! SOOOO happy to be home(:” tonight. Really, while there might be people who aren’t sure what some of that means, they get the jist of it…Siara is in Seventh Heaven right now, because she is home for the holidays. She will be just fine when the next semester starts up, even though she will be sad to leave her family again, but she will also be well aware that Summer vacation is right around the corner. For now she will just enjoy the time with family and friends.
My niece, Lindsay has been away at college for some time now, and while she still misses her family too, the pain of missing them is easier to deal with, because she has been down this road before. It doesn’t mean that she doesn’t look forward to coming home for the holidays, because she is just as excited as Siara is. When I texted Lindsay to ask if she was coming home for Christmas, she texted back that she was…followed by “Yayyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!” Her excitement was as evident as Siara’s, and while Lindsay won’t be home until Saturday, at which time I expect that her real excitement will surface. It is so hard to come home…see your house all decorated for Christmas…and not feel like you are finally home for the holidays.
Because of the years Lindsay has been in school, she is more able to deal with being away from family, but being away from family is always hard, and if you have to be 
away from family over the holidays, it’s even harder. Being with family is one of the most important parts of the holidays, if there is any way to be there. I am so thankful that Lindsay doesn’t have to be away from all of us over the holidays, because we are a close family, and we don’t like having anyone be far away over the holidays. As Lindsay always says, “We would miss her face!!” I’m so glad that both girls will be home for the holidays.
